Jack is special to us at National Agents Alliance because he came to visit with us at our campus and talked with our people a few years ago. We love Jack McKeon and were tickled to hear he was back in baseball again.

Jack loves winning! That’s why we like him.

The Marlins management decided they needed – or had to – make a change. The first thing McKeon, who has won more than 1,000 MLB games as a manager, did was call a team meeting. The Marlins’ star player, Hanley Ramirez didn’t hear about the meeting and was late. For some that might have been OK, but McKeon, who is the second oldest manager in MLB history behind Connie Mack, decided he would bench Ramirez because he had hurt the team by showing up late. Maybe getting away with that type of behavior led to the team being so dismal this season.

Florida lost McKeon’s first game back 2-1 Monday, but last night they beat the Angels 5-2, earning their first win since like May!!! Can you imagine doing something that is your job and not winning for more than a month? Baseball teams play pretty much every day. I would go insane if I were that bad at something that I was supposed to be good at!

Along those lines, the Marlins and McKeon, like National Agents Alliance, want to build a winning team. If you want to do that, sometimes it involves changing what you are doing.

I wanted to write this blog to discuss how you can change anybody – including yourself.

What is the biggest agent of change? What is the most likely way to change a person? What if you have a person who is not motivated, they can’t quit something, can’t recruit or can’t sell?

Now, you are asking, “What is it Andy? How do you do it? How do you help people become better in life and start winning?”

Peer pressure! Peer pressure is the most powerful pressure you can put on people … it’s not even close. I’m telling you that is THE way to do it!

My buddy Tom O’Brien, N.C. State’s football coach, likes to say a whacking can be a powerful motivator, but so can peer pressure. Sometimes you might need to whack somebody on the head and sometimes you need to whack yourself on the head.

I’ve heard people talk about punishing themselves if they don’t hit a goal or reach a certain watermark. It’s important that you treat it like a competition. If you don’t produce it might be beneficial to punish yourself in some way. I’m not saying you have to do anything crazy, but it might help motivate you if you don’t get something you like or love to do because you didn’t produce.

Maybe you take a cold shower instead of a warm shower. Maybe you sleep on the couch. Maybe you don’t eat that dessert that you are craving so badly!

Find something that will help drive your desire to win. It will help push you over the top. You can’t be out of the ordinary rich and still be a normal person. It just doesn’t work that way, you have to do things a little differently.

You want to be an instrument for change for people. You can make a difference if you can help people change.

Look at a person like Chris Gardner, who wrote Pursuit of Happyness which was turned into a movie with Will Smith in it. Gardner had a terrible childhood, was homeless as an adult and he used association to turn his life around. He’s a multi-, mutli-, multi-millionaire now and he did that with the associations he formed with people over the years. He still talks about how important association is today.

I tell people this all the time: I’m in it to win it, I didn’t come to take sides, and I came to take over. I am not joking. If you are joining my team, you better be coming to win and be all in with us.

Gardner asked me Tuesday when we could meet and I said hang on a minute. I looked at my jam-packed schedule and July 5 was open. Done. I’m getting on a plane and I’m going to hang out with him for a few hours in downtown Chicago at his office.

That’s the other thing you want to achieve through association. Get around talented people and learn from them. It will only make you better. Being around crazy talented people will make even an average person better. It’s as simple as that.

But Andy, doesn’t that take work and effort? Of course. If it were easy, it wouldn’t be called work! You have to work at anything to be great. It doesn’t just fall out of the sky, knock you on the head and all of a sudden you are a genius!

When you want to help a person, find out where they are and where they want to go. Once you establish that, there are 1,000 things you can help them with to get them headed in the right direction. You have to have a starting point first and without that it’s pointless to direct them.

If everybody on your team knows what the goals are, can stay focused and work toward it, it is crazy what can happen.

When you get the team together and get everybody’s mind right and focused, it will shock you what happens: that team wins!

Here’s the cool part: people love winning.

It is contagious and, once people taste it, they crave it constantly and want to taste it more often.

Here’s the catch: a lack or lapse of that focus on your goal is the enemy. You must dial in on what you are shooting for to help the team win.

The bigger the team gets, the bigger the opportunity gets, but the team has to stay focused or they can’t win titles.

We want team players. We don’t want loners who do not want to be on our team and do not want to do the things we need them to do.

Use peer pressure, association and help people make changes so they can be better. You make changes so you can get better. If you can do that, your team will start growing and winning together. Association, peer pressure and leadership. Get those three things rolling and you can win in life, win with money … win, win, win!!!

Winning leads to more healthy competition because it’s in people’s DNA to want to be a superstar. But, it’s the people that are willing to make sacrifices and put in the effort that end up shining brightest and snagging the spotlight. Maybe you are not at the top, but you still want to be on the team and you are going to do what it takes to stay on the team.

The best teams that win titles and championships are tight. They are united in their dreams and goals. They have each others’ back. They don’t care about what they do if the team wins! They just want the wins. When you get the right mix, that’s when you start winning big!

One thought on “Duh, winning! How a lack of winning brought Trader Jack McKeon back to the dugout”

Andy, My heart is beating faster than ever and I can’t agree more with what you have been saying. TEAM WINS…As individuals we must fight the good fight daily at the task we are given.We must execute with precision and passion our tasks holding OURSELVES accountable but as we do we Inspire and up the game of those around us. You have built a MIGHTY TEAM and I for 1 am ready to do my part.TEAM invites others to WIN!!!Let’s do this thing!!! Keep Rock’in Respectfully Loyal, Bill Cook